The Travellers (my first story :D)
by Johnnyclaw
Summary: Storm, a curious young she-cat, lives in a group known as travellers; cats who don't stay in one place for long. They decide to settle for a rest in a forest rich with prey. The only problem is the feirce cats who live there. Storm soon meets a friend, and they become close. Torn between her friend and the travellers, she has to choose. Rated K for now... (more chapters to come)


Storm woke up in a daze, her striped, grey-brown fur ruffled, fluffing out in every direction. She yawned, revealing long, milky-white teeth, and began to groom herself before the others woke up. Jet and Skid were fast asleep, their dark brown pelts rose and fell in sync, Raven stirred faintly, then returned to a deep slumber, and Gnaw slept a few tail-lengths away, his back to the other cats. Storm quickly finished off smoothing her back-fur and cautiously rose to her paws. Pausing to have a stretch, she spotted a plump rat crawl from a crack in the twoleg stone-wall. Instinctively she dropped into a crouch and began to prowl the clueless rodent. Without a sound, she crept around the other cats and positioned herself behind her prey, then pounced, almost too late, as the creature realized her presence and tried to bolt. She caught it in her paws and killed it with a swift bite to the neck. It went limp and instantly.

"Nice catch."

Storm spun around. Raven sat up and began to lick her paw.

"Thanks." Her words came out muffled as she held the rat.

"Remember to stay downwind. It smelt you."

Storm nodded and padded over to Raven. She was much older and more experienced than Storm, and she felt pressured to please her. She looked up to the skilled feline. Storm dropped her kill at Raven's paws.

"Would you like to share?"

Soon the other cats had woken up, and more prey was caught. All five cats then gathered together.

"Today we move in the direction of the rising sun, the house cats around here say there's a forest that way if we go far enough. There the hunting should be better, and we can stop there for a while and rest." Gnaw announced to the group.

"Sounds good." Raven approved.

Jet nodded slowly, then looked at his brother.

"We heard some alley cats talking earlier about a forest," Skid meowed, "they said that a large group of wildcats live in there."

Storm's tail twitched, not nervously, in excitement. "I think we should go." She had never met wildcats before, only the occasional group of rouges.

Although she was the youngest, the group respected her opinion, although they did look uneasy.

After a long pause, Raven spoke, "We'll go."

The rest of the group nodded, then they all got onto their paws and headed towards the sunrise.

Three days later and the group of travellers arrived in the forest. Storm could hear the pitter-patter of tiny feet and the thought of prey filled her mind. Food had been scarce on the way there, and now the cats could finally feed. Without speaking, the group dispersed at once into the undergrowth. Storm made her way along the edge of a creek, hoping to catch a water shrew or a frog. The smell of the forest was intoxicating, alive with the scents of leaf-litter, moss, water and rotting tree trunks. The fresh scent of prey also whirled into her nostrils, and soon she had spotted a plump wood pigeon shuffling through the dirt on the side of the creek. Quickly she snuck up behind it, careful not to make a sound. Bunching her haunches, she readied herself for the pounce. Then suddently the bird began to flutter away. Storm instantly flung herself into the air and managed to grasp its wing between her paws. She brought it back to ground and killed it easily.

Suddenly she was knocked of her paws and into the creek, which turned out to be deeper than it had seemed. The sound of rushing water filled her ears as she was knocked around over the stones below. She felt a claw rip her skin, then a nip at her tail; her attacker had followed. She couldn't swim, but she could fight, and maybe if she beat this foe she could work on escaping the water. She saw a flash of gold and jetted out her paws, claws drawn, and managed to tear down her enemys back. It came back with a hard pound to her chest, knocking the breath from her cheeks. Now, without any air, Storm knew her time was limited. Panic seized her mind. As she tried to locate which way was up, claws striked her belly. She glanced the cats head, and clawed its face. It drew back. The world began to fade around her, and then everything went black.

Storm awoke with a start, a cat gazed at her from above. His fiery golden fur gleamed in the sunlight, although it was dreanched. His musles were well defined beneath his fur. His emerald eyes glowed with interest. Suddenly the memory of being rammed into the water sparked her mind. Instantly she leapt to her feet, startling the golden tom. Her wet fur stuck to her skin as she tried to fluff it out. Hissing she knocked the cat onto the dirt, cuffing his ear with sharp claws. He struggled but managed to escape Storms grasp, then spun around. She tried to lunge again but a sharp pain stopped her. She sat, beginning to lick her belly. The taste of blood filled her mouth.

She felt another tongue rasp her back, and tensed her muscles. The golden tom continued, and soon she relaxed. Once her fur was clean and dry, the tom sat up. He then turned and gripped the wood pigeon Storm had caught earlier in his jaw, then he dropped it in front of her.

"I'm not allowed to do this." he mewed. A long pause followed. "I thought you were a Thunderclan cat."

"A what?"

"Nevermind. You're a rogue, aren't you?"

"A traveller." Storm corrected him.

"What's the difference?"

"We are no threat to you." she told him.

"As long as you are stealing prey you are a threat to us."

A long pause followed. _What did he mean by 'stealing'_, _and what did he mean by 'us'_? The conversation had become stern. Storms mind now buzzed with thoughts and questions. Storm opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off as a yowl sounded nearby. The toms eyes widenned.

"You have to go!" he hissed.

Storm wanted to ask more questions, but his voice was urgent. She decided to leave.

"Keep the pigeon." she mewed, before bolting in the direction opposite where the yowl had sounded. She halted abruptly and turned back to see the tom watching her leave. "What's your name?" she asked him.

"Sunpaw." he responded, and with that Storm left. Through the trees she speeded, away from the river, her head buzzing.

_Sunpaw, Sunpaw,_ she repeated in her mind. _Sunpaw._


End file.
